Witnesses ‘awestruck’ by meteor blazing over Nelson

A meteor spotted shooting over Nelson must have been of a ‘‘substantial size’’ to be visible during the day, says an expert.

Stoke and Wakefield residents reported seeing a meteor with an orange tail blazing a path eastward just after 1pm on Monday. It was also seen later from the Kapiti Coast.

Duncan Steel, of the Centre for Space Science Technology in Alexandra, said anything able to be seen during the day would have to be large, and would be fairly rare.

‘‘The meteoroid would need to be a substantial size, like a rugby ball,’’ he said.

‘‘Most meteors would be about 60km to 100km up in the atmosphere. That’s where they start burning up.’’

Steel said the meteor seen on Monday would have been enough to ‘‘light up the night sky’’ if it had happened later, and would be referred to by the technical term ‘‘fireball’’.

Nelson local Ken Allan, who reported seeing the meteor about 1.15pm, said he was ‘‘awestruck’’.

Another sighting was reported from Wakefield, describing it as a ‘‘big fiery ball flying really fast through the sky’’.

Steel said the meteor could have been a ‘‘natural’’ meteorite, but it was very likely, given the direction the meteor was travelling, that it was a piece of space junk. All artificial satellites orbited in the direction of Earth’s rotation, so when they re-entered the atmosphere they moved in an easterly direction.

He said anyone wanting to confirm their sightings of the meteor could check Nasa’s official Fireball tracking website, cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/fireballs/, in a day or two, when the data would be publicly available.

The meteor was described as a fiery ball with an orange tail, like this one seen over Canterbury last year.